"chances for life on this planet, 100%"

[brainhulk]

time to whip out the tin foil hats

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_sc/us_sci_new_earths

 

[Eli]

Pretty cool. We need to investigate it as best as we can currently, and if it's plausible that it has life, we should send something to investigate ASAP.

120 trillion miles?

35,000?MPH.. 3428571429 hours.. 525600 hours/year..

6523 years?

Could maybe we make something that would go 100,000MPH? That would bring it down to 2,283 years.

On that time-scale, it may as well be on the other side of the universe. On the universal scale, it is a next door neighbor. On the time scale, it's currently much too far away to be of much use.

 

[Paratus]

Pretty cool. We need to investigate it as best as we can currently, and if it's plausible that it has life, we should send something to investigate ASAP.

120 trillion miles?

35,000?MPH.. hours.. 525600 hours/year..

6523 years?

Could maybe we make something that would go 100,000MPH? That would bring it down to 2,283 years.

On that time-scale, it may as well be on the other side of the universe. On the universal scale, it is a next door neighbor. On the time scale, it's currently much too far away to be of much use.

Scotty I need warp speed now!

 

[The Boston Dangler]

that article is so bad, it should link to itself as reference and be posted on dailytech.

 

[God Mode]

if you do enough drugs you can go there in 2 minutes

 

[Loop2kil]

You could always try 'ludicrous speed'

 

[TecHNooB]

Pretty cool. We need to investigate it as best as we can currently, and if it's plausible that it has life, we should send something to investigate ASAP.

120 trillion miles?

35,000?MPH.. 3428571429 hours.. 525600 hours/year..

6523 years?

Could maybe we make something that would go 100,000MPH? That would bring it down to 2,283 years.

On that time-scale, it may as well be on the other side of the universe. On the universal scale, it is a next door neighbor. On the time scale, it's currently much too far away to be of much use.

did you factor in time dilation? might not be going fast enough for this actually.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

You could always try 'ludicrous speed'

Sure, if you wanna go plaid.

 

[Loop2kil]

Sure, if you wanna go plaid.

Much worse....your brains will be going into your feet!

 

[JMapleton]

You are misreading the article or the author misquoted the scientist. It took them 11 years just to figure out this planet existed. How can they say there is anything on it? Let alone water. Let alone life.

 

[coldmeat]

Pretty cool. We need to investigate it as best as we can currently, and if it's plausible that it has life, we should send something to investigate ASAP.

120 trillion miles?

35,000?MPH.. 3428571429 hours.. 525600 hours/year..

6523 years?

Could maybe we make something that would go 100,000MPH? That would bring it down to 2,283 years.

On that time-scale, it may as well be on the other side of the universe. On the universal scale, it is a next door neighbor. On the time scale, it's currently much too far away to be of much use.

wait, wat? 525600 hours in a year? What planet do you live on?

 

[konakid7]

This is pretty cool, a step in the right direction for identifying habitual planets. I bet we'll keep discovering these at an exponential rate; there are suppose to billions of candidates out there. Next step is just getting there.

 

[hans030390]

Good thing I can teleport.

 

[Cogman]

Holy Horrible Article batman!

Seriously, 100% probability there is life? Yeah, right. No scientist in their right mind would throw out the 100% for an unknown. Stupid sensationalists.

 

[Freshgeardude]

I think people are failing to realize that this planet ALSO weighs in at 3 times as much as earth.

its too late to look up the math, but the gravity on that planet could be up to 3 times as much as it is here if it has the same radius as earth

F= Gxm1xm2/r^2

G being 6.67x10^-11

if I recall correctly


I am not sure if that is going to be habitable.

plus the fact that we wouldnt be able to get there in with our technology today, and 20.3 years sounds unlikely as well.

unless we discover faster methods of traveling in the universe, such as worm holes (theoretically possible under Einsteins law of special relativity) i think we are going to be stuck with earth/mars until we as a human race extincts

 

[StinkyPinky]

I think people are failing to realize that this planet ALSO weighs in at 3 times as much as earth.

its too late to look up the math, but the gravity on that planet could be up to 3 times as much as it is here if it has the same radius as earth

F= Gxm1xm2/r^2

G being 6.67x10^-11

if I recall correctly


I am not sure if that is going to be habitable.

plus the fact that we wouldnt be able to get there in with our technology today, and 20.3 years sounds unlikely as well.

unless we discover faster methods of traveling in the universe, such as worm holes (theoretically possible under Einsteins law of special relativity) i think we are going to be stuck with earth/mars until we as a human race extincts

Not really. If we can make something that can get at say 75% the speed of light a generational ship can get to that planet in 30 years or so. Not unreasonable.

75% speed of light sounds crazy, but 100 years ago so did airplanes.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

75% speed of light sounds crazy, but 100 years ago so did airplanes.

You know, 100 years ago living like the Jetsons would have sounded crazy. And guess what? It still does.

 

[insect9]

You know, 100 years ago living like the Jetsons would have sounded crazy. And guess what? It still does.

100 years ago living like we do now would have sounded crazy.

 

[brainhulk]

I wonder how they'll determine who gets to pollenate the new planet. I bet after a 30 year trip they won't want to have sex anymore

 

[khon]

I don't think it'll be more than a decade at the most before we discover the first proof of life elsewhere in the universe, which will be done by looking at the athmospheric composition of likely planets.

Whether we'll ever actually be able to go to one of these planets is another question entirely, but I imagine we will.

Once we figure out how to maintain human life perpertually on a spaceship, you gotta figure someone will set out to try, even if the flight time is decades.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Holy Horrible Article batman!

Seriously, 100% probability there is life? Yeah, right. No scientist in their right mind would throw out the 100% for an unknown. Stupid sensationalists.

It's his flying spaghetti monster.

 

[Fritzo]

OK, yes, the article was not well written, or the official that they quoted got a little too excited.

The planet is in an orbit that is "just right"...the Goldilocks zone as it's called"...where temperatures are in a range that liquid water can exist. The planet is tidally locked to it's star, so one side always faces the sun, and the other faces away. The will leave a strip of real-estate on the sides where liquid water COULD exist. They have no way of telling if water is actually there or not at this point.

The fact that the planet is massive is a good thing. It is so close to it's sun that it will need that gravity to hold on to a thick atmosphere...which in turn would be needed to shield itself from solar radiation. The presence of a magnetic field would help it out as well.

We have proposed blueprints to create a "starship" that could go perhaps 40-50% the speed of light. The problem is the ship would be fatal and break several nuclear treaties, and it would bankrupt the planet. The propulsion involves setting off hydrogen bombs until maximum thrust is achieved. However, the radiation on the back half of the ship would most likely be fatal, and colliding particles on the front of the ship would turn you into swiss cheese. The sheer size of a ship that could carry enough fuel and supplies to make it there would be about 1/2 the size of the moon---which would mean every single resource on the planet would have to be devoted to building it. You get my drift...

There's also a moral issue- even if we could send a ship there, it would take at least 1 generation to get there. This means that children would have to be born in space, and their lives would be predetermined. Advances in expanding human life spans look promising however, so this may not be an issue in the coming decades.

Our best bet is going to be an intelligent robotic probe. Probably the only way we're going to get to see the place up close, and it won't be within our lifetimes

 

[xSauronx]

It's his flying spaghetti monster.

Hey, wanna see my flying spaghetti monster...

 

[Sea Moose]

cant we just find a big desert people to send the sand people to? Like in star wars?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

cant we just find a big desert people to send the sand people to? Like in star wars?

It's called the internet and they are already here.